


From Earth to Moon

by TentativeTreason



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, No Sparrow Acadmy, Ray goes with them, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, The Hargreeves siblings actually get their shit together in 2x07 and get back to 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25642636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TentativeTreason/pseuds/TentativeTreason
Summary: The Hargreeves siblings travel back to 2019, but they don’t go back alone.Ray Chestnut finds himself knee deep in the weirdness that is the Hargreeves family. “Robot mother?!” and “Talking monkey butler?!” weren’t even the weirdest things he’d said today.****(i.e. Ray Chestnut acclimatises to life in the future and all the oddities it brings. Slight spoilers if you haven’t watched The Umbrella Academy Season 2)
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Allison Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Allison Hargreeves/Ray Chestnut
Comments: 36
Kudos: 841
Collections: The umbrella academy





	From Earth to Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Slight AU for the ending of The Umbrella Academy Season 2 (i.e. Ray Chestnut comes with them).

The car ride had been a quiet one, full of nervous energy, though Ray didn’t know if it was coming more from him or Allison.

When Allison had asked him, no  _begged_ him, to come with her he’d initially refused. Of course he had. His entire life was here: his family, his job, his friends, his cause. But at the end of the day, if he didn’t go his wife wouldn’t be here.

While his cause of fighting for the rights of people of colour was of the upmost importance to him, he also wasn’t naive enough to think that he alone held the key to their freedom. So when she’d asked again for the second time for him to go with her, he couldn’t find it in himself to refuse.

And that how he found himself being lead hurriedly into a back alley street near Monty’s Television and Radio.

The moment they came round the corner, Ray felt himself become overwhelmed at the sheer absurdity of the situation; before him stood the most eclectic bunch of people he’d ever seen, they were entirely mismatched in every way.

On one hand there was the gigantic beast of a man he’d met a few days before,  _Luther_ , if he remembered correctly; then there was the eccentric cult leader he’d met in holding; then there a pale, rather timid women who stood slightly off to the side of the group, as though unsure how she fit into the group; to her right was a man with shoulder length hair and a knife casually twirling in his palm; and finally, a boy in what appeared to be a school uniform, aged around thirteen or so, stood in the middle of the group holding a brief case. At least two of them were his wife’s brothers and, if her story was actually true, the rest of them were her siblings too.

Allison had explained to him briefly about time travel, and how she was from 2019, about how she had powers and had ended up here when she tried to save the world. But she had never actually explained how shed ended up with siblings who were all so  _different_ to her. 

Without pause, or introductions, the boy angrily reached out to Allison and physically dragged her into the group. “Finally, Allison, we’ve got only two minutes to go, you’re cutting it  very  clos-“

“Let her go.”

Ray didn’t realise he’d spoken until the boy stopped pulling his wife around and glared over at him. 

“And who are you?” The boy questioned rudely. 

“My name’s Ray Che-“

“He’s my husband.”

Allison spoke over him, glancing over at him apologetically, before focusing on her brother. 

“I  _told_ you, we  _can’t_ bring people with us.”

”And I said, I’m _not_ going without him.”

“If she gets to bring along her husband, why can’t I bring Sissy and Har-?!”  
  
“This isn’t ‘Bring a friend to work’ day, nobody extra is comin-“

All around him shouts and accusations were being hurled, no-one else being heard over the arguing of one another. It only took him a moment to believe Allison when she said these were her siblings; only siblings could be  this  dysfunctional.

The briefcase in the boy’s hands started to make a whirring sound and glow blue, effectively interrupting everyone’s arguments. 

“We don’t have  _time_ for this.” The boy gazed distrustfully at Ray, before nodding. “Just, everyone, grab hold, _now_. We have to do this to save the world.”

The siblings all grabbed hold of each other in a circle, with Allison and the other women grabbing him on either side, and all he could think was,  _‘Who said anything about the end of the world?’_  


****

With a thump the siblings and Ray, crashed onto the marble floor of what looked to be a hallway of some sort of mansion. 

Ray lifted his head from the floor, looking worriedly for his wife. “Allison?”  
  
He heard her groan quietly, her body partially hidden by the cult-leaders jacket. “Allison, are you alright?”

“R-Ray?”  
  
”Yeah, babe. I’m here.”

He put his hands under her arms, helping her stand before looking around confused. “Where are we?”  
  
His question was ignored by the heap of bodies, and by the sudden statement of the teenager to his left. ”We did it.”

The boy held a newspaper in his hands.“It’s April 2, 2019. We stopped the apocalypse!”

“We really stopped it, it’s over?” The pale girl questioned.

“Did we  _actually_ succeed at something? That’s incredible.” The cult leader reached out to the others dramatically, “I don’t know about you guys, but I need a drink or something.”

“Would someone mind explaining to me what just happened and where we are?”

As though just realising he was the there, all of them, except Allison who was clutching his hand, stared.    


****

“So, we’re in a mansion that  all  of you own... because you’re all  _somehow_ siblings?”

“Yeah.”

“And  _how_ ,  exactly, are all of you siblings again?”

The child, who’d introduced himself as Five - because that made sense - rounded the table, a martini in hand. “We were all bought by a billionaire as babies and raised as experimental child soldiers who were sent out on missions by our father.”

“ _What_?!” 

Clearly Allison had missed quite a bit when she’d been explaining time travel and her life to him. 

“Yeah, our father was a real  _shitty_ Dad.” Klaus piped up from his spot lounging face first on the floor. “Couldn’t even be bothered to name us, our robot mother and talking monkey butler had to do it for him when we were eight.”

He felt his breath catch. “ _Robot mother?! Talking monkey butler?!_ Allison, what’s he talking about?”

“Everyone, stop it! You’re overwhelming him!” Allison squeezed his hand, trying to be reassuring. “Look, you know how I told you my childhood wasn’t exactly conventional?”

“You said you had super powers, not that you had a Mother. Who. Is. A. Robot.”

“I might have left some things out, yes. But it’s otherwise all the same. We all had powers and were trained with them. Luther has super strength. Diego can throw knives and hit any target. I’ve already shown you my powers. Klaus can commune with the dead. Five can travel in space and time. Ben... he could summon monsters from his chest. And Vanya, not that we knew it at the time, can manipulate sound waves.”

“And your father trained you with them?” Ray asked again, feeling particularly slow as he did. 

“Yes, what part of that don’t you get, you moron?” The child spat petulantly over his drink. 

“ _Five_!”

“What was Klaus saying about your dad not naming you?”

“I was  _saying_ , that we didn’t have names. We only had numbers. We were Number One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Seven.” He pointed over to each of the when their respective number was called. 

“Stop with the Numbers shit. We’re Team Zero.” Diego combatted. 

“How can we forget the ‘numbers shit’?! We were raised on it, it’s as much a part of us as the umbrella tattoos are.” Klaus lifted his arm, displaying a tattoo that was all too familiar to Ray; it was the same tattoo that adorned his wife’s arm.

“When did you get the tattoos?”

“Dear old Dad made us get them when were...twelve, maybe?! Except Vanya ‘cos he was still pretending she didn’t have any powers back then.”

“It wasn’t entirely his fault, he wanted us to stop the apocalypse.”

Diego scoffed at Luther, “Yeah, well he did a pretty shitty job of it considering he got one of us killed and that it was only thanks to the old man that Vanya blew up the moon in the first place.” 

Unable to resist getting involved, Klaus taunted. “Oh, don’t get Luther started on the moon. Y’know he can’t help the moon boners whenever he hears people say the word.“

“ _Shut up,_ Klaus.”

Ray couldn’t take in what he was hearing. Glossing over the discovery that Allison’s sister had apparently previously blown up the moon, he’d just discovered his wife been apparently trained as a child soldier, that she hadn’t even had the courtesy of a name until she was eight. She, along with all but one of her siblings, had been marked like cattle, as if they were nothing to the man that had raised them. And he knew from the casual way each of the siblings were talking that he was only scratching the surface of the trauma that was each of their childhoods. “Allison, I’m  _so_ sorry.”

“Ray, it’s fine.” His wife trailed her fingers on the back of his hand. “When I was old enough I left. I got my own place, became a actress and had a family. You remember I told you about my daughter Claire, right?”

He did remember, in the first few months of their relationship, how she’d told him one night of her daughter who she’d lost. He’s assumed she meant that her daughter had died and she just didn’t want to say how, but  now he realised it must have been time travel not death that kept them apart. 

Ray took in his wife’s hesitant face, as though she was worried about his reaction. “I look forward to meeting her.”

****

It had been a couple of days since he’d arrived on 2019 and he’d been slowly adjusting to it. While the world may be the same in some ways, it had changed drastically in others. Technology for one. 

Phones no longer were just on walls; everyone had one now and they called the  mobiles . They could do more than just call people now as well. They connected to something called the ‘internet’ which, as Allison explained it, was similar to a library but on a phone. He didn’t quiet get it, but thankfully Five seemed to share his discomfort with anything technological and would still get paper copies of the newspaper on a daily basis. Though Ray believed that had more to do with checking the news for anything upsetting the new timeline, or for hints of something called the Temps Commission. 

Another thing was fashion. 

It was a small thing but it was taking a little time to get used to the style people had nowadays. He’d noticed it when Allison, Klaus and Vanya took him on a shopping trip.

His wife wore a leather jacket and heels, while Klaus wore a black floor length skirt and a mesh black top.

“Are you sure he’s gonna be okay going out like that?” He asked Allison worriedly. 

Over the past couple of days, he’d become something akin to friends with Klaus. He’d found him odd but in a comforting way. Klaus had told him of how disconcerted he’d been when he’d landed in the Vietnam war in 1968 and how much of a culture shock it had been when he came back. Which had mainly served to start a history lesson for Ray as he didn’t even know the US had been at war with Vietnam in 1968, but he’d appreciated Klaus’ attempt nonetheless. 

”Ray’s got a point.” Allison said, looking over at Klaus. “You not going to bring a jacket?”

“T-That wasn’t what I meant,” Ray whispered to Allison,”I meant, are you sure no one is gonna mess with him if he dresses like that?”  


“ Oh. Oh, honey, no. He’ll be fine. People in 2019 don’t really care about gender norms these days. They won’t care what he dresses like... for the most part at least.” 

Klaus laughed as he glided past them to the door, “If you think this is interesting, I should make you watch RuPaul’s Drag Race sometime.”

“So no one cares, about  _any_ of that stuff anymore?”

“There are still some bigots out there, but mostly people don’t care what you wear or who you love. Women can marry women and men can marry man. And people of different races can marry and have kids without anyone caring.” 

“Wow.”

It didn’t really sink in for him until later that day, when they were in a mall cafeteria. Vanya, Allison, Klaus and he all sat with their food perched on the table in front of them. 

He looked around and saw how  _mixed_ everyone was. There were people of all races, religions and cultures casually sat around the mall tables eating together.

Two tables over he saw a black man and a white woman holding hands. His heart lurched as the man leaned over and kissed the woman lightly on the cheek. His hands were sweating as he looked around, worrying for the couple’s safety, but nobody even batted an eyelash.

The world really was changed, at least somewhat. 

“Excuse me-” Their meal was interrupted by a middle-aged couple who’s attentions were focused on Allison,”-you’re Allison Hargreeves, right?”  


Allison smiled disarmingly over the couple. “That’s right.”  
  
”I knew it! Martin, didn’t I tell you so?! Would, would you mind signing these for us?” The woman held out a napkin and a pen in front of her.

“Sure.”

Watching his wife of a year sign a napkin for complete strangers and pose for a photo was surreal. He knew she had told him that she was a film star but to see evidence of her fame was another thing. 

“How lucky am I to have you as my wife?” He asked once the couple had left, kissing her softly. 

“Very.”

“So, I have a question.” Vanya piped up from across the table. “Are you even technically married in this timeline?”

****

The realities of his decision to leave his own timeline hit him at unexpected moments. After Allison and he had officially got married - with some money spent on fake identity documents for him - and Allison was away for the afternoon visiting Claire, he’d taken time to try and find out what happened to the family he’d left behind. He’d not wanted to do it while Allison was around as he hadn’t wanted her to think he was doubting his decision in any way, but still. He needed to know. 

He’d approached Vanya. “Do you know how to use this?”

He lifted the contraption he held up despairingly. He’d been told it was a called a laptop, but knowing the name of it had helped very little in teaching him how to navigate it. 

“Yeah, I know how. C’mon.”

Vanya had researched his family for him on ‘ancestory.com’. He’d found out his brother and wife had had died the year before in their later seventies and that they hadn’t had any children. Though he didn’t know what he would have done if they had. Maybe announce himself as a long lost cousin and try befriend them? Maybe it was better that he didn’t have that chance.

He spent the next couple of hours trawling through the internet looking for information on old work and school friends, wanting to know what came of each and every one of them. Vanya’s quiet presence comforting him through it all.

“I know what you’re going through, y’know? Maybe not to the same degree, but I left people back in 1963 as well. Sissy and her son Harlan.” The way Vanya’s voice lifted at their names said everything that Vanya herself didn’t.

“I’m sorry you had to leave them behind.”

“I’m sorry too, Ray. I really am.”

They sat there, on the couch, Vanya’s head leaning on his shoulder both comforting the other in their own way. 

“I might have left one family behind, but I gained a new one too.”


End file.
